Which other Oscar goes most often to the Best Picture winner?

Jacob Sarkisian
·5 min read

We Oscarologists (ridiculous name) spend our time trying to read certain tea leaves to figure out what a potential Best Picture winner typically needs to win in order to take home the Oscars’ top prize. Best Director was once the most important category to excel in. Then it was Best Editing that we thought a Best Picture hopeful needed to check off. Then, recently, the combination of a writing Oscar and an acting win has proven to be a powerful one for eventual Best Picture winners. But what do the stats say? Well, we’ve combed through every Best Picture winner of this century and documented which other Oscars they won. We then tallied those figures up in this below handy chart:

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*A note: For a detailed breakdown of exactly what Oscars each Best Picture winner of this century won, head here while you can find a full breakdown of which films make up the above numbers at the bottom of this article.

So, there you have it. Best Director is the category Best Picture winners have won the most this century. 15 out of 24 films won this award, including last year’s Best Picture champ “Everything Everywhere All at Once” for directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Other winners here include “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (Peter Jackson in 2004), “Parasite” (Bong Joon Ho in 2020), “The Departed” (Martin Scorsese in 2007), and “No Country for Old Men” (Joel and Ethan Coen in 2008).

Both writing categories are equally important, too. Interestingly, Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay have both been won nine times by Best Picture winners this century. The academy doesn’t have a preference in where the script comes from, then, but a good script is important. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won Original Screenplay last year while, the year before that, in 2022, “CODA” won Best Adapted Screenplay. “A Beautiful Mind” (2002) and “Moonlight” (2017) both won Adapted Screenplay while “Crash” (2006) and “Spotlight” (2016) are other Original Screenplay winners.

After that, Film Editing is the next most commonly won Oscar by Best Picture winners. Again, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won this award, as did “Chicago” (2003), “The Hurt Locker” (2010), and “Argo” (2013).

Best Supporting Actor is the acting category that has been won the most by Best Picture winners. Ke Huy Quan won last year for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” while other winners include Morgan Freeman for “Million Dollar Baby” (2005), Mahershala Ali for both “Moonlight” and “Green Book” (2019), and Troy Kotsur for “CODA.”

Best Actor winners who have hailed from Best Picture winners include Kevin Spacey in 2000 (“American Beauty”), Russell Crowe in 2001 (“Gladiator”), and Colin Firth in 2011 (“The King’s Speech”). The most recent example was Jean Dujardin for “The Artist” in 2012. Meanwhile, only three Best Actress winners have come from Best Picture champs: Hilary Swank (“Million Dollar Baby”), Frances McDormand in 2021 (“Nomadland”), and last year’s winner Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”). Best Picture Supporting Actress winners include  Jennifer Connelly (“A Beautiful Mind”), Catherine Zeta-Jones in 2003 (“Chicago”), and Lupita Nyong’o in 2014 (“12 Years a Slave”) with last year’s winner Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) the most recent example.

Surprisingly, Best Sound has been won five times by Best Picture winners, including “Gladiator,” “The Hurt Locker,” and “Slumdog Millionaire” (2009). The most recent winner here was “The Hurt Locker,” which won both Sound Mixing and Sound Editing in 2010.

The most recent Original Score winner to go to a Best Picture champ was “The Shape of Water” in 2018. That movie was also the most recent Best Picture winner to take home Best Production Design. Meanwhile, “The Artist” is the last example of a Best Picture winner claiming Best Costume Design. Best Cinematography was most recently won by a Best Picture winner in 2015, when “Birdman” won both awards. “Slumdog Millionaire” most recently won Best Original Song as a Best Picture winner while Best Visual Effects was last claimed by a BP victor in 2004 with “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” winning.

Meanwhile, only one Best Picture winner has also taken home Best International Film (“Parasite”) and Best Makeup and Hairstyling (“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”), respectively.

This all looks like good news for this year’s predicted Best Picture winner, “Oppenheimer.” We think it will win Best Director (for Christopher Nolan), Best Film Editing, and Best Supporting Actor (for Robert Downey Jr.). Those are three of the most commonly won Oscars by Best Picture winners while we also think the film will win Best Actor (for Cillian Murphy), Best Sound, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score. The only major category we think it will miss out on here is for writing, but it could actually win Adapted Screenplay above “American Fiction” if the night really goes well for “Oppenheimer.”

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